US Citizenship and Immigration Services building
NEW YORK: Between April 4 and 5, over 175 members of Immigration Voice, an advocacy group for employment-based Green Card applicants, from around the nation descended onto the nation’s capital to ask their congressmen and senators for reforms to the broken Green-Card process.
“While K-Street, the Hi-Tech industry and Congress is distracted once again by H-1B visas, recycling the same old talking points one more time, Immigration Voice’s laser-like focus remains on the nearly 500,000 highly skilled immigrants who remain backlogged for 10-15 years waiting for their Green Cards,” said Aman Kapoor, president of Immigration Voice.
“These highly-skilled professionals believe that the H-1B visa controversy sucks-up all the oxygen in the room whenever employment-based immigration policy is discussed. However, the real problem lies in the fact that there is a huge pool of talent untapped by American employers in the form of highly skilled legal professionals who have been living here on temporary visas as they patiently wait for their Green Cards. These law abiding, tax-paying, highly skilled future Americans, cannot start their own companies and immediately create jobs in America, change employers or accept promotions during the Green Card application process, which now spans 10-15 years. This creates serious quality of life issues and ultimately hurts the US economy.”
Kapoor further explains that Immigration Voice aims to create awareness with members of Congress, congressional staff and policy makers about the Green Card backlog, which inhibits job creation, entrepreneurship and wealth creation for all Americans. “These immigrants are waiting to showcase their innovation leadership with their US work experience and American education. Immigration Voice will insist that Congress focus on the Green Card backlog rather than on H-1B visas,” concluded Kapoor.
Immigration Voice has arranged nearly 350 visits to congressional offices April 4-5 in both the House and Senate.
Founded in December 2005, Immigration Voice is a rapidly growing, national grassroots, non-profit organization with 57,000 highly-skilled legal immigrants as members. Immigration Voice is committed to commonsense reforms to the employment-based immigration and Green Card process.
India Post News Service
